[1] St John's Mission Church, a small Gothic-style timber building, was constructed in mid-1912 in Ford Street, North Rockhampton, in the heart of the district known as "Kanaka Town".

[1] South Sea Islanders (known as Kanakas) had been arriving in Rockhampton from the 1860s, indentured to work on the district's sugar cane plantations and inland pastoral properties.

The first baptisms of five men and four women from the South Sea Islander community took place at St John's Mission Room on 19 June 1896 and the first marriage there was celebrated on 15 December 1896.

The South Sea Islander community used the small mission room for their weekday meetings and Sunday School, while worshipping at St Barnabas' Church, located about a kilometre away.

The South Sea Islander community of North Rockhampton had been closely involved in the levelling and clearing of the St Barnabas' site in 1896.

By May 1912 the South Sea Islander community, working without parish assistance, had raised £60 for the construction of St John's Mission Church, the cost of which was estimated at £80.

By June 1913 a Sunday School had been established at St John's, and in 1916 the church building was enlarged with the addition of a sanctuary to the eastern end.

Improvements made to the church for its anniversary included cladding the exterior with fibrous-cement sheeting and painting, which was carried out by a team of voluntary workers.

[1] Weekly services and Sunday School at St John's were an integral part of the South Sea Islander community at North Rockhampton and continued with few interruptions until recent times, when growth and expansion of South Sea Islander families has widely distributed community members throughout North Rockhampton and surrounding district.

Although Sunday School no longer functions at the church, special services such as funerals or christenings and events on the Christian calendar, draw large attendances.

St John's Church remains a significant part of the streetscape of Ford Street, and represents the physical, spiritual and material growth and development of the South Sea Islander community within Rockhampton.

The small, box-like church with its steeply pitched gabled roof of corrugated iron, pointed arch windows, original single-skin boarding and exposed stud walls expresses elements of Gothic style.

The originally open-sided front entry porch at the western end of the building has side walls of fibrous-cement sheeting, each with a small rectangular window, and is accessed via central timber stairs.

The dedication plaque on the base of the font, below the Crucifix relief reads:[1]To the Glory of God for use at St John's Mission Church, Ford Street North Rockhampton.

St John's Anglican Church is important in demonstrating the evolution of Central Queensland's South Sea Islander community and a pattern of multicultural integration within Rockhampton and surrounding districts.

St John's Anglican Church is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a European religious building type adapted within South Sea Islander culture.

With its pitched gable roof, crucifix finials, pointed arch motif windows (visible internally), porch and sanctuary, St John's Church illustrates the principal characteristics of a modest, Gothic-influenced, timber ecclesiastical building.

The interior fabric of the Church retains high social significance for the South Sea Islander community, with many items, including a clam-shell font on a carved pedestal, providing a tangible link with the people associated with the Parish, and to their missionary benefactors in Menapi, Papua.

St John's Anglican Church and prior mission room has a strong and special association for the South Sea Islander community for social, cultural and spiritual reasons.